obé Fitness
Evolving beyond cookie-cutter content, the future of digital fitness is personalized.
The latest: Digital fitness platform obé is shifting its focus from on-demand workouts to outcome-driven personalized programming.
Recognizing behavioral shifts of its core users (women aged 25–54), obé will use a detailed questionnaire (gauging time constraints, preexisting injuries, and desired skillsets) and users’ wearable data (including cycle tracking) to curate a plan of action every two weeks.
Speaking to WWD, co-CEO Ashley Mills said obé is taking the guesswork out of workouts:
“…we need to make sure that we’re serving the exact right modalities at the exact right time depending on who you are, where you are, and how you want to move.”
The company is also shifting its content focus from weight loss to holistic wellness, committing to new series in strength as well as self-care, like meditations, mobility training, and sleep support.
Curated Collection
Mirrored by surging demand for personal training, structure-seeking exercisers want to know they’re on the right track—every step of the way—to hit their goals in strength, well-being, and more.
- Following Strava’s acquisition of Recover Athletics, users are recommended specific prehab exercise content based on logged activity.
- WHOOP’s new strength training feature quantifies strain and recovery while recommending pre-built workouts from athletes like Michael Phelps, Patrick Mahomes, and Sloane Stephens.
- In April, Anytime Fitness debuted its AF SmartCoaching app, with its coaches using members’ synced data to produce custom workout and nutrition plans.
Most recently, UK functional fitness platform Fiit partnered on a branded wearable with Prevayl, creating a profile of biometrics that inform its workouts and training plans.
Kings of content. Data-informed content is a must-have for the modern-day exerciser.
Leading the way, Apple’s Fitness+ empire has all the ingredients to champion this space, and then there’s Peloton.
Prioritizing premium content on its app, the company’s prior acquisition of Atlas Wearables could possibly resurface in the form of bespoke programming, with CEO Barry McCarthy admitting last fall that the brand was falling short on the experience end:
“From a content experience, the most revolutionary thing we’ll do in the next 12 months will be on the personalization side.”
Looking ahead: While advanced streaming capabilities, like Nike Training Club’s tie-up with Netflix, are effective in expanding reach — many users are fed up with endlessly scrolling content. With exercisers crunched for time and lacking motivation, obé and the next wave of digital fitness tools will be much more prescriptive.
